Sunday, February 15, 2015

Second Eye Operation

I went back to Harley Street for my second operation on
Friday the 13th – not an auspicious day if you believe in that
nonsense. This time I took a camera in the hope of getting some shots of the
procedure, so be warned if you’re squeamish – the shot of me in a hair net is
quite horrible.

When I arrived there I was still slightly worried about the
cloudiness in the eye that had been operated on. I use the word ‘cloudiness’
rather than ‘blur’ because it wasn’t as if I was straining to focus but to see
through a dirty glass. After a chat with my surgeon Mr Samer Hamada (a guy
whose letters after his name are about twice as long as his name) and his
inspection of my eye, I felt reassured. Swelling from the surgery causes
astigmatism until it goes down and there are also debris in the eye that take a
while to clear. Sometimes these debris stick to the lens but can be quickly
cleared at a later date with what’s called a YAG laser – this takes just a few
minutes.

Also noticeable during this consultation was when he checked
what I could read on a card. I could read even some of the small print not
commonly used. The vision in that eye is improving daily.

Anyway, after a bit of a wait I had the drops in my second
eye then, after a further wait went into surgery. I handed the camera over to
one of the nurses and climbed onto the surgical table. Same procedure as
before, obviously, though slightly different pains and lots more fluid squirted
in. Maybe he was making sure to be rid of as much of the debris as possible.

Afterwards my vision had improved noticeably – there certainly
didn’t seem to be any of the cloudiness as from the first operation. I went
home, put my eye drops in then later found myself even able to read the text on
my Ipad without strain. I later went to bed with two eye shields on and looking
like a bug.

The next day things were a bit blurry but I didn’t let it
worry me. I took a train into London yet again for an inspection at the Optimax
clinic in Finchley Road. Everything was still looking good. This morning I’ve
seen another improvement and suspect that the slight blurriness I now have is
due to the scotch I drank last night rather than the surgery.

Later I’ll try to find a video animation I watched in the
clinic yesterday showing in detail the procedures I’ve undergone. Can’t find it
at the moment.

Oh I wish I had read this BEFORE your operation. Anyway, in a past life I worked for NASA at GSFC in the Laser Remote Sensing Laboratory. Part of the requirements for me to be in those lab spaces was a full regimen of photonics safety training - anything you wanted to know about how (not) to hurt yourself or equipment with a laser... or incidentally not destroy that fancy new $250,000 laser.

Well, the upshot is that the instructors and the doctors who examined me for my periodic macular health baseline exam (in the event I burned my eye out they want to be sure it wasn't already burned out I suppose) all said to never let anyone point a laser in your eye for any reason. Medical or otherwise. Could be hoo-ha - I don't know for sure - but being 47 myself with degrading eye sight I would love to get such an operation done but the brain washing is too strong.

That said everyone who I know who gets this sort of thing done says it is great, so I hope the same for you. I am such a Luddite in this manner I suppose.

Halfway through Dark Intelligence. I am rationing the pleasure. I have to say, the writing is both more assured, and deeper, imho. There is a serious feeling of menace to the scenes where people are dealing with events, ( in that they really don't just seem to be going through "plot advancing motions" AT ALL ! ! ! and any of them might fall into a hole . . . or grinder, at any moment ) in a way I have not felt in your stories since the horribly scary ( at least to me personally ) scenes of the initial confrontation between HumanityandtheirAIs and the Prador. Those scenes made my Star Trek heart cringe and wither and whimper. Hahaha, good times. :)

That photo of you looking up from a field of blue, scalpel foreground is VERY Terry Gilliam. :O Thank you so much for your writing. :)